Laure Grima

PhD in Genetics

Experimental aquaculture station, Palavas-les-flots (Ifremer) and Laboratory of fishes’ genetics (INRA)

PhD topic

To a genetic improvement of fish feed efficiency.
The purpose of this PhD is to provide a database to start a selection program on feed efficiency (FE), meanwhile it remains hard to measure (accurate valuation of the ingested) and highly unstable due to the environmental conditions. A protocol has been imagined to measure in the same time the genetic variability of the characteristic using a X-ray technique to measure the individual ingested and the pertinence of indirect criterions (IC), integrating and easy to measure in a breeding.
Those ones are weight loss consecutive to fasting and ability of compensatory growth. They were chosen because they embody both care necessities and fastness of nutriments’ use, two metabolic characteristics enabling to explain FE variations. The protocol was developed on rainbow trout clones and applied on European seabass. The experiment on the clones allowed to highlight a genetic variability of FE, as well as a significant correlation between IC and FE.
Experiment on European seabass showed that it was able to modify the FE of a population by selecting according to the IC efficiencies. The IC relevance has been approved when revealing they were transmissible and stable along the time. Finally, a selection based on IC has, a priori, no influence neither on the carcass output nor on fat rate in the flesh or viscera.

Why did she sign up for science

"My main interest in science is genetic improvement of agronomical interesting species, through selection means. Needs in agronomy constantly increases in society, and genetic improvement is an answer to have species evolving according to this needs.
In pisciculture, one of the key-locks to open for a ecologically and economically sustainable breeding is efficiency of the feed use. This is furthermore true for carnivorous species as salmonidae or European seabass. Thus using my PhD results, I hope it will be possible to breed fewer feed consuming fishes.”

Publications

One publication in Genetic Selection Evolution (IF = 1.7)
Genetic Variability in residual feed intake in rainbow trout clones and testing of indirect criteria
Laure Grima, Edwige Quillet, Thierry Boujard, Christèle Robert-Granié, Béatrice Chatain, Muriel Mambrini
Last contributions to conferences
- Journées Recherche Filière Piscicole, Paris (3-4/07/07). Oral presentation and summary.
- Syndicat français de l’aquaculture marine, Montpellier (13/03/08). Oral presentation and summary.
- XIII International Symposium of Fish Nutrition and feeding, Florianopolis, Brésil (1-6/06/08). Oral presentation and summary.
- Satellite Meeting at the Society for Experimental Biology, Sète (05/07/08). Oral presentation
- XX International Congress of Genetics, Berlin, Germany (13-16/07/08). Poster and summary.

Enough with science…

Her hobbies are cooking, travelling and bike riding.